Priceless Advice! Thanks

Priceless advice! Thanks

One of the most common problems I saw while working at a literary agency was that a lot of the character arcs felt incomplete, or not fully realized. Characters didn’t really change over the course of the story, or even learn something new. 

Basically, a character arc is the transformation of a character over the course of a story. Their starting points and ending points must be different. Note: I did not say the end point has to be better, just different. Breaking Bad comes to mind, where Walter White started out as a pretty decent, average science teacher, and it went downhill from there until he was a drug kingpin and criminal.

The story has to affect your character! We have to see those effects!

Quick & Dirty Cheat Sheet to Make a Character Arc:

Figure out where the character is at the beginning of their story. How do they react to things? Defensive? Offensive? What are their flaws? What are their strengths? Is there any trauma they are dealing with? 

Think about the course of your story. Will the story help them fix those flaws? Will it make them worse? Will the roots of their trauma be addressed? Will there be a point where their faith in their strengths falters? 

Take the course you’ve thought about in step #3, and think about where it will leave your character. They should be somewhere different than the beginning, and decidedly worse/better off than they started. Readers should be able to see the transformation and note what is new! 

Lastly: is it satisfying? Does it make sense? Are the steps that changed your character spread out & well developed? This step is being made only because of Game of Thrones. I’m thinking of Dany’s quick descent into madness that lacked actual roots. We should have been seeing that madness ages ago for it to truly feel natural. Bran ends up as king; yes, it is different to where he started, but it really doesn’t make sense. You have to think critically about your arcs and if it’s a natural progression of events!!!

Notes: Beta readers and critique partners will be huge helps with looking objectively at your WIP! They’ll be able to tell when a character’s arc is not quite right, or if it’s upsetting/unsatisfying.

Note for pantsers: If you don’t plan your WIP out ahead of time, these steps might seem fruitless. I would advise: write draft one, then retroactively look back at your character’s start and end points. Make sure you took the steps to get them to where they need to be. Make sure they’re different. Make sure it feels natural. 

Some Other Thoughts:

Your main character should undergo the largest change and have the most realized arc. Put the most time into developing your MC’s arc!!!

Minor characters should also have arcs, unless they are one-scene-wonders. Characters we see often, even if they aren’t exactly main characters, should also change a bit! Just not as much as your MC. 

If you find your minor character has a more compelling and fleshed out arc than your MC, consider: who do I want to be the subject of the story being told? Would making the minor character the main character work better? Often, arcs can be indicative of character importance. Those with more developed arcs are likely more prominent characters!

The cabbage man from ATLA does not need a character arc, and frankly trying to give him one might make the story seem clunky and crowded. Delegate your arc-developing time to characters that need it. 

Heroes should have positive arcs. They should end up better off than they started. If not? They’re probably anti-heroes. Walter White, though he is the main character in Breaking Bad, is an anti-hero.

If there’s one key thing about your character that influences all their actions, maybe make their arc about that! Dealing with trauma, looking for love, etc. If your character has been desperate to fall in love, maybe they’ll end up realizing that desperation isn’t a good look for them, and realizing they don’t need love to be happy! 

The first arc you think of may not be the best one. For the example above, that arc is more compelling to me than finding love and being happy with it, though “finding love” might seem like the immediate solution to “looking for love”!

Arcs do not mean total personality change. It can! But it doesn’t have to be! Harry was still brave and loyal to his friends at the end of his arc, but he’d undergone the transformation into a hero by learning, growing, and completing the final task of taking on Voldemort. But he was still Harry! Han Solo became more loving, more open, and a little more open to working with others, but he was still snarky and a little gruff!

There are many different kinds of character arcs as well.

Other resources: 

The Four Different Types of Character Arcs

Creating Compelling Character Arcs

Types of Character Arcs in Novels [video]

Happy writing <3 

How the plot looks like in my brain:

How the plot ends up looking when I write:

Wow, that was the most convincing and complete perspective on BTS’s reasons for success I have seen in a while. Very interesting!

To be reblogged.

This was surprisingly well done. I didn’t expect them to go back and talk about 2015.

I love Kazuo Ishiguro. But I love Kazuo Ishiguro expressing capital social-interaction issues more. And I love Kazuo Ishiguro writing about these capital social-interaction issues even more.

“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”

— Kazuo Ishiguro, in his Nobel prize (2017) acceptance speech.   (via halcynth)

Writing is not always writing.

Writing is being on the train and mentally seeing your OCs stumble into other people, or flinching away from the germ-ridden handrails, or sleeping on each others’ shoulders.

Writing is hearing a song on the radio and watching one of your scenes play out to the lyrics.

Writing is laying on your floor or sitting by your computer and spending hours collaging newspaper clippings or pictures or people or plants together and making something that is completely, uniquely, your story.

Writing is drawing your characters in your notebooks, and making tea only your one, picky character would drink, and writing an open letter to all your characters just to remind them you love them.

Writing is moodboards, and playlists, and crafts, and asks, and prompts, and pictures, and memories, and you.

So never think that just because you’re not putting words on a page, you’re not a real writer. Writing is something that follows you everywhere, beyond the word document, and beyond the screen.

Because writing isn’t something you do. It’s something you are.

Self Love

Are you understanding?

Do you show leadership skills?

In what ways are you fearless?

*

Choose one. Choose all three.

Tag, re-blog, reply or just think about your reflection. Show yourself some love today.